I have 31hp at the pto. So, woodland Mills supports a 6 inch chipper. Woodmax 6, 8, or 9. 95 pct of chipping is fresh cut cedar. I like the woodmax 8800 but for some reason it has 2 blades. Bothe the woodmax 6 inch and 9 inch have 4 blades. Any thoughts on these 2 brands. Any experience or thoughts on 2 blades vs. 4?
Take a look at each unit in person. Ask for a demo on removing the shrouds and chute the clear the chipper when it gets plugged with chips. Make sure you are comfortable with it being field serviceable with minimal tools. Price out cutters.
I would pay attention to flywheel weight and hydraulic infeed as well as field serviceability.
I would pay attention to flywheel weight and hydraulic infeed as well as field serviceability.
Oz_Kioti
Gold Member
When I was considering my Woodland Mills 8" chipper, the only machine I had to compare it with was a chipper with similar capacity but with the infeed shute being low and parallel to the ground. (Woodmax ?)
For my needs, which was predominantly chipping olive tree prunings, the raised inlet shute of the Woodland Mills machine suited me much better. Also the fact that it's own self-contained hydraulic fluid supply was isolated from the tractors supply appealed to me. So I went with the Woodland Mills 8".
I see that the Woodland Mills machine now sports a straight-behind inlet chute (as opposed to mine with an offset shute) which would not suit me as well, but I'm sure you'd soon get used to either inlet angle configuration.
Mine also has four knives - two towards the outer perimeter and on opposite sides of the flywheel , and the other two offset 90 degrees mounted on the inner perimeter. This arrangement gives a nice even cutting action. The other real benefit is that the 540 rpm of the drive shaft is geared up to 1000 rpm of the flywheel via pulleys and four belts, so clogging of the outlet shute is a rarity.
My advice is to just check out the layout, ease of knife replacement, rpm of the flywheel, and practicality for YOUR situation.
For my needs, which was predominantly chipping olive tree prunings, the raised inlet shute of the Woodland Mills machine suited me much better. Also the fact that it's own self-contained hydraulic fluid supply was isolated from the tractors supply appealed to me. So I went with the Woodland Mills 8".
I see that the Woodland Mills machine now sports a straight-behind inlet chute (as opposed to mine with an offset shute) which would not suit me as well, but I'm sure you'd soon get used to either inlet angle configuration.
Mine also has four knives - two towards the outer perimeter and on opposite sides of the flywheel , and the other two offset 90 degrees mounted on the inner perimeter. This arrangement gives a nice even cutting action. The other real benefit is that the 540 rpm of the drive shaft is geared up to 1000 rpm of the flywheel via pulleys and four belts, so clogging of the outlet shute is a rarity.
My advice is to just check out the layout, ease of knife replacement, rpm of the flywheel, and practicality for YOUR situation.
ericm979
Super Member
Many of the larger Woodmaxx units like have the rotor geared up via a belt drive. The rotor on my 8H runs at 1150 rpm vs 540.
Some of the Woodland Mills chippers have blades that cover half of the throat, and alternate them. So while there's four blades any one part of a branch only gets hit by two blades per rotor revolution. So it's functionally a two blade chipper, but with four blades to remove when it's time to sharpen them.
Chippers whose rotor turns 540 rpm often have four blades instead of two. With the material being fed in at a certain speed there needs to be a certain time between blades for the material to get fed in for the next blade but not so long that it just runs into the rotor. If the rotor is slower then more blades are needed.
The 540 rpm chippers have about half the inertia as a 1100 rpm chipper. Tough material will slow them down easier.
I like the horizontal chute on most of the Woodmaxx models. That lets me chip long heavy branches since I don't have to lift the entire branch up to get it into the chute. Just get one end in and then lift the other up to level. For smaller stuff it's less work than lifting up into a chute that's tipped up.
Having had one of each I much prefer a power feed chipper to a self feeding one. It's a lot safer to have the branches feed at a predictable rate. I think the adjustable feed rate is much more useful than a fixed feed rate if you have material of varied sizes.
5030
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Keep in mind the Woodland Mills is Canadian. Consequently, there will be a substantial tariff on it... Woodmax, on the other hand is USA. Not sure about the tariff on it. Some Woodmax stuff is made here, some is Chinese.
So much good info. I will build a table. Here's a couple features I need. Automatic, not gravity fed. Horizontal in feed. My stuff is 1 to 7 inch cedars. Ive rented vermeer chippers for a total of 8 weeks over the last few years. I've been looking for used but I'm looking at 10 to 15 thousand vs. 3 to 7000
We are dead center in this mess.Great point in minimal tools. First time I clogged the vermeer it shut me down for the day. I needed a couple wrenches is all but was an hour away from the right tools. Lesson learned.
Tinhack
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View the Woodland Mills site. Not only are no tariffs indicated, but
they also have a sale going on with free shipping. I just ordered a maintenance kit, trailer hitch and chainsaw holder a couple of weeks ago for my WC-68. All with free shipping. It was shipped out of Washington state. They must have a stocking warehouse there to get around the tariffs. They are not an order and build company like some.
I see they now have 8x10 pro model. Might be useful to someone that does a lot of chipping.
ericm979
Super Member
I had the same experience here in CA. All the used trailer chippers were either expensive and beat up, or really expensive and not so beat up. I think they command a premim as wihoyou
My tractor's 32hp at the PTO and it is slow when chipping stuff over about 4". Much above that and it depends on the species of wood. Some chip easier than others.
5030
Rest in Peace
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Most times, chipping much like chainsaws, depend on how sharp the cutters are.
Far as Woodland Mills is concerned, the company is Canadian based so don't matter if they warehouse in Washington State, tariff's will apply.
Far as chippers are concerned, I have no use for one. Had one a few years ago and sold it. I prefer to roast the stuff.
Still have a large pile of chips in the side yard I need to dispose of.
Far as Woodland Mills is concerned, the company is Canadian based so don't matter if they warehouse in Washington State, tariff's will apply.
Far as chippers are concerned, I have no use for one. Had one a few years ago and sold it. I prefer to roast the stuff.
Still have a large pile of chips in the side yard I need to dispose of.
bigtiller
Super Member
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I have the woodland mills wc68.
With my 2720 or 3039R for power, they have never bogged down.
90% of my chipping has been with live spruce.
Since most of your chipping is with cedar, also a soft wood, you can most likely jump up a size in chipper with your 31 pto hp.
Here is a chip of Norway Spruce with made by the WC68 and JD 2720.
With my 2720 or 3039R for power, they have never bogged down.
90% of my chipping has been with live spruce.
Since most of your chipping is with cedar, also a soft wood, you can most likely jump up a size in chipper with your 31 pto hp.
Here is a chip of Norway Spruce with made by the WC68 and JD 2720.
My chinesium chipper needed three sizes of wrenches AND sockets AND all the guards were attached using nuts, bots and washers requiring me to lie down on the ground to get at the inside ones. PITA
I removed all the fasteners and standardized on M8x25 hex heads and welded weld nuts on the inside so I only need one wrench to remove all the shields.
I still have unhitch the implement to pull all the shields to grease my bearings. Eventually I will put remote zerks so I can grease without removing the shields.
I also made a swivel chute adapter. That's an important feature in my books.
Well done!
I was wondering bout "upsizing." I like the woodland mills. It did seem like a lot more HP is required compared to others.
I have the WC-68 and I believe it is actually made in china for Woodland Mills.
I bought it last year and it is sold/shipped in NY from Buffalo warehouse.
I found it plugs up a lot sometimes stalling the 8N. I haven't tired it on the Kubota yet as I have the backhoe on that a lot. I found you can use a small jack to push the roller back and up to clear a jamb of course after taking the pto out of gear.
I since made a hydraulic ram assembly to do that that just flips down and pushes. Again pto out of gear. I got pictures somewhere.
OK the jack was left over from my 93 ford ranger, the adapted snow brush with a piece of metal on it pulls the pieces out when it clogs. AGAIN with pto off and roller raised. But the hydraulic really works slick. I can clear it out in just a couple minutes without wrenches and messing with springs etc.
Bill
I bought it last year and it is sold/shipped in NY from Buffalo warehouse.
I found it plugs up a lot sometimes stalling the 8N. I haven't tired it on the Kubota yet as I have the backhoe on that a lot. I found you can use a small jack to push the roller back and up to clear a jamb of course after taking the pto out of gear.
I since made a hydraulic ram assembly to do that that just flips down and pushes. Again pto out of gear. I got pictures somewhere.
OK the jack was left over from my 93 ford ranger, the adapted snow brush with a piece of metal on it pulls the pieces out when it clogs. AGAIN with pto off and roller raised. But the hydraulic really works slick. I can clear it out in just a couple minutes without wrenches and messing with springs etc.
Bill
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Oz_Kioti
Gold Member
A mate of mine was somewhat surprised when he first saw my new Woodland Mills chipper. He reckoned I'd made a bad purchase, as his only experience with a Woodland mills chipper was that it clogged up all the time! The model he was familiar with was a 6" model, the WC-68. He was very pleasantly surprised at the action of my WC-88 over the course of several hours clog-free chipping.
Then we compared the flywheel speeds. The 68 is direct drive, so flywheel speed is 540 rpm.
The 88 is belt & pulleys driven, stepping up the flywheel speed to 1100 rpm.
It makes a difference!
Runner
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I have to say, one thing I like about the Wallenstein BX42 is the simplicity. One bolt to open the chamber (for unclogging or knife changes) and two nuts to move the loading chute from the storage position to the working position. All 5 grease zerks accessible from outside.
Fro. What I've read, Wallenstein are top notch. My tractor dealer sells them. Or, had one out front anyway. They are just out of my price range. Let me know if I'm missing anything or off base.
